June and Ward

June and Ward are a gorilla couple who reside in Jungle Land. Despite being apes, June and Ward are quite civilized, as they are fully clothed, and live in a well furnished house, which happens to be located in the branches of a tree. Although they have no true children of their own, they are shown to have an unseen pet named Pooch, who is presumably a dog. They also have a copy of the book Naked Ape in their living room. June and Ward are spoofs of June and Ward Cleaver from Leave It to Beaver.

History

June and Ward had been living peacefully in their Jungle Land house, when suddenly, an Albatoss carrying Mario flew by and dropped the plumber onto their front porch. The impact of the fall caused Mario to lose his memory. June and Ward, not knowing any better, chose to raise Mario as their own son, and renamed him Marzan. June and Ward taught Mario the ways of the jungle, including how to pop bananas out of their peels, and how to swing from vines.

Later that day, June called Mario home for dinner, although he was fairly due to certain circumstances beyond his control. Wanting to restore Mario back to normal, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad followed Mario to June and Ward's house, where they tried explaining to the gorillas that Mario was actually their friend, and not an ape.

Their conversation was soon interrupted by Shy Guys, whom King Koopa ordered to cut down June and Ward's entire tree. Forunately, Mario was able to stop them using the jungle survival skills that June and Ward passed down to him. Luigi eventually restored Mario's memory using a meatball sandwich, which Mario rescued by swinging from some vines. When Ward praised Marzan, Princess Toadstool feared that Mario hadn't fully recovered, but Luigi assured her that Mario had always gone ape for meatballs.

Although June and Ward were never seen again, it can be assumed that they eventually learned that Mario was actually a human and allowed him to continue on his journey with his friends.